Salvation Study: The Mockery of Salvation

BLJ: We will spend a few days talking about salvation. Let me blunt. I am convinced that many people attending church are not saved. They go to church because of the social benefits and friendships they make. Yet, they lack the deep commitment to Jesus Christ. As we study a work by Rev. Kenneth Fay, search your soul. Are you saved?


THE MOCKERY OF SALVATION

Mat 22:2-5 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. 4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. 5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

In St. Matthew, Chapter 22 Jesus Christ foretold certain attitudes humanity would reveal toward the hearing of His Gospel. One group "made light of it and went their ways," verse 5.

Another "treated the servants spitefully and slew them," verse 6. A third stubbornly chose to ignore the necessary preparation and thus insulted His King, verse 12. These verses, like a mirror, reflect the heart attitudes of multitudes today--that of careless, mocking, indifference to spiritual values.
Karl Marx, the godfather of modern Russia, once sneeringly said, "Religion is the opiate of the people." Here is mockery. Fredrick Nietzsche, the German scholar whose teachings became thunder on the lips of Adolf Hitler said "I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great depravity, I call it the immortal blemish of mankind. That too, is mockery. John Dewey, whose ideas have largely molded American education, meant to be taken seriously when he declared, "there must be a surrender of fixed dogma with which Christianity has been historically associated."

Do you know that a so-called "sacred book" consigns our Lord to the deepest hell alongside pagan perverts? That a few years ago Communists in Spain depicted the Savior between a group of imbeciles and a group of insane calling Him, "King of the Morons?" That the atheists of Russia, attempting to shame their people for faith in Christ pictured Jesus seated between bloated, thieving men of wealth and influence? Blasphemy. Yet, this issuing out of sneers, jeers, and cruel mockery has like a deadly plague spread itself over society.

The movies of Hollywood and television are rife with it. In clever ways it appears in newspapers, books, magazines, and advertisements. It has become the theme of songs and radio programs. It seems that the enemies of Christ never miss a chance to poke fun or take a 'lick' at Christ and His Gospel, either openly, or subtly, but in diverse ways. Everywhere, and at every level of communication, mockery of the Sacred abounds. All this, of course is foretold. "There shall come in the last days...scoffers," 2 Peter 3:3.

The Moral corruption of the human heart is the Bible's explanation of this mockery. Jesus said, "Out of the heart proceed (among other things)...blasphemy," i.e., railing, hurtful speech, St. Mark 7:22. Mockery, however, may be senseless as well as sinful. Jesus allowed this when upon the cross he prayed for His mockers, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Moral depravity therefore, may be coupled with mental denseness. Still, how truly senseless this is when one can view the Creation abounding with every sign of a Master Designer.

A father wished to have a conversation about God with his small son. He devised a clever lesson to make the boy think. He planted cress in his garden, arranging the seed carefully, so that when the green shoots appeared they would spell the three initials of the boy's name. The lesson was profound and the little lad had sense enough to see that someone had planted that 'planting' and was led to behold God as his Creator.

Surely our world affords unnumbered object lessons of that Divine skill, beauty, and power. Joyce Kilmer wrote "poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree." Yes, and not only a tree but a trillion other marvels of His love and intelligence. For instance, consider these words of Dr. Walter L. Wilson. "God takes a handful of black carbon, plants it deep in the bowels of the earth, treats it with heat below, presses it with rocks of the mountain above, and transforms it into a glorious diamond for a king's crown.

A handful of sand is deposited by the Lord in the heart of the earth. Great heat is applied from beneath and ponderous weight from above until when it is found by man, it has been miraculously changed into a beautiful, fiery opal.

Consider the remarkable transformation that takes place when a caterpillar (an upholstered worm) encases itself in its homemade casket and is changed into a beautiful butterfly. Its hair is changed to scales--a million to a square inch; the many legs of the caterpillar become the six legs of the butterfly; the yellow becomes a beautiful red; the crawling instinct becomes a flying instinct. God's wisdom is seen in the structure of the elephant. The four legs of this great beast bend forward in the same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal should have a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it could rise from the ground easily.

God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments as well as in the number of grains.

Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind. Each orange has an even number of segments.
Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.

God causes the limb of a tree to grow straight out from the trunk for a distance of forty, fifty, or sixty feet, with no anchorage other than fifteen or eighteen inches of fibres which lose themselves in the trunk of the tree. No human being has discovered how to apply this principle in the construction of buildings or bridges.

God takes oxygen and hydrogen, both of them odorless, tasteless, and colorless and combines them with carbon, (which is insoluble, black, and tasteless.) The result of this combination is beautiful, white, sweet sugar. How does God do it? I do not understand. I only know God can take your life drab, useless, and fruitless--and transforms it into a beautiful garden of the sweetest graces for His glory. He will do this for you if you will trust your life to Him." But--will you?

Reader--if, as some assert, we are simply the product of blind and purposeless forces, we have no responsibility to any higher power for we have no higher court to answer to outside our own. On the other hand, if all these marvels we see about us are the products of Almighty God, we must concede that they, as well as we ourselves, were made for a Divine purpose--we stand then at the crossroads. What a moment! What a danger confronts us! Will we ignore this Great Creator, abuse those powers with which God has endowed us to know Him, shield the eyes of our soul from the light of His Word--His Revelations to man of our need and His supply and so offend this glorious Being?

Dear Reader--your heart's attitude is so vitally important. If you have reflected in any way the attitude of those in St. Matthew, Chapter 22--beware! "God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" Galatians 6:7.

Stop! Seriously think about God--your soul and about Salvation!